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Monday, August 12, 2013

The Burqa’s Aura: Gaga and the End of Western Art

By Devin O’Neill

So Lady Gaga decided to wear a burqa, and sing about it, and
now the Internet’s eating her alive.

This deserves some attention, truly. This conversation is
about the future of artistic dialog. It’s much bigger than it looks on the
surface.

First, I’m tired of hearing “oh, this is just sad grasping
for attention, she’s just trying to cause controversy, this isn’t culturally
relevant.” No, no. Stop and think. CLEARLY it is. CLEARLY she’s actually
touching a sensitive cultural button. Otherwise people wouldn’t be so pissed
off about it. If what she was doing was just a sad, irrelevant grab for
attention, nobody would care about what she’s saying. But they do. In terms of
starting an important cultural conversation, she already wins. Let’s clear that
up to begin with. The argument has blossomed.

The subject under discussion is the shape that the dialog
should now take. And the position of the above article makes a relatively
familiar set of assumptions:

1. The assumption that she’s just wearing/singing about it
to be controversial, and that she doesn’t understand the implications of what
she’s doing.

2. The assumption of the default position that appropriation
and collage always result in oppression and that her normalization of the burqa
as a fashion statement will have a negative, not positive, effect on the
communities that deal with the burqa as a social reality.

3. The assumption that the original implications of the
burqa are not sexual.

A few too many assumptions for me.

The charged nature of the debate doesn’t just come from the
position of Islam. It comes from Western ambivalence about Islam. On the one
hand, we characterize Islam as the religious impetus for an entire body of
regressive oppression in the Middle East. On the other, we feel deep guilt
about that assumption and about our own cultural hegemony with relation to our
pluralistic, progressive understandings of culture, and we want to grant Islam
due respect and a “seat at the table.”

In this way, the burqa as a hot-button issue is very much a
conversation generated by Western academia. The conversation is an expression
of our ambivalence. We’re so interested in it because we’re so conflicted about
it. That ambivalence is the minotaur in our labyrinth, the demon we’re
repressing. As Voltaire put it, “to learn who (or what) rules over you, simply
find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”

In other words, how does the burqa enter our artistic,
discursive, creative culture? Can it be remixed and experienced and questioned,
as in the rest of the contemporary artistic field of experience, or are we to
leave it untouched? Are we to have any relationship with it at all?

What, precisely, is Gaga saying about the burqa? Maybe that’s
a good place to start.

One of the objections of her critics is that she’s
sexualizing the burqa. This is absurd. The burqa is already deeply, thoroughly
sexualized. It’s a garment designed to cover a woman’s body. Why would it be
important to cover a woman’s body, if we’re not worried about adverse weather
or witness protection?

So what Gaga is actually doing is performing, in an
exaggerated way, the function of the burqa. It’s not that she’s wearing it;
it’s that she’s making a show of taking it off. That’s the sexualized element
of her performance. First, she explicitly fronts a position that seems
consistent with the position of Islam:

I’m not a wandering slave I am a
woman of choice

My veil is protection for the
gorgeousness of my face

And then:

Do you wanna see me naked, lover?

Do you wanna peak underneath the
cover?

In other words, the controversial act here, apart from her
cultural appropriation, is the revelation of her female body, the moment where
she hints titillatingly at the removal of the burqa.

When presented with that starkness, the attack on her
suddenly seems to require further inquiry from a feminist position. Why is it
so important that she keep context with the burqa by keeping her body hidden?
What, exactly, is the burqa for?

This isn’t about devaluation of the burqa – both cultural
positions need to be considered and allowed validity. I want to make that
clear. I’m not saying, “we Westerners are right; the burqa is repressive.” I’m
also not saying, “Islam is right; the burqa is a good and positive cultural force.”

I’m simply asking: what is it for? I want a Muslim
representative to tell me.

Is there a bar to clear for cultural understanding? How much
do we have to learn? Is no real dialog possible, ever? If we determine the
purpose of the burqa, can we then discuss the efficacy of that purpose? How
separatist is it possible to be, on a planet where we’re culturally
interconnected to the extent that we are?

Assuming the automatic invalidity of Gaga’s statement,
assuming that it should be stricken from culture as a mistake, puts a
stranglehold on academic discussion of the burqa as a creative, fashionable,
cultural, or religious phenomenon. We’re not even sure we should be talking
about it. Maybe certain things cannot be at the center of Western conceptions
of academic and artistic dialog. Maybe we must be silent. Maybe we should cloak
our opinions and ideas, and bow our heads.

Well, Gaga decided to talk about it. I’m glad she did.

Author Bio:

Devin O’Neill is a transmedia storyteller, branding
practitioner, and performance artist. He enjoys things he shouldn’t, on
purpose, and tries to get other people to enjoy them too. Make friends with him
at https://facebook.com/devinoneill

Established in March 2010 as the first mover in Gaga studies,Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art About Lady Gaga is a technological journal that critically-creatively participates in the cultural project of shock pop phenomenon Lady Gaga. Keeping with the spirit of our zeitgeist, Gaga Stigmata moves at the speed of pop.

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Editors

Kate Durbin is a Los Angeles-based writer, artist, and founding editor of Gaga Stigmata. She is the author of the books The Ravenous Audience, E! Entertainment, Kim's Fairytale Wedding, and, with Amaranth Borsuk, ABRA.Visit her website.

Meghan Vicks holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.

Contact

For press and all other inquiries, email the editors at gagajournal@gmail.com.